I posted this in Death Valley's Vegan cyclists thread, but thought it was a bit of a hijack so I moved it here.

Anyone got any tasty veg recipes they can post up? I'm interested in doing a bit more cooking at home and cutting down on the meat. Bit sick of it and beef is dear as poison now anyway. My current level of culinary skill is fairly low but you have to start somewhere

You could try starting with a simple meatloaf but hold the meat, I'm no veg but quite often raid the pantry and fridge of what ever jumps out at me, and make a loaf or 2 for dinner that lasts for a couple days on sanga's or as a quick snack,

Things like:Tin baked beanscup of rolled oats or some sort of cereal, wheatbix works toosome roughly chopped vegies, carrot, onion, mushrooms even pumkin with the skin on, or some frozen mixed vegies.Chopped walnuts, these turn really sweet when cooked.I also throw in some eggs,if your a vegan then maybe not but not shure how it would hold together when warmbut once cold should be ok, even some canola or olive based margarine type spread would help it hold together when it cools down.

Experimenting is the fun part, l havn't had one turn out bad yet.Cooking wise 180deg for 45 min to an hr just keep an eye on it.

1. In a pan that has a lid and is large enough to contain everything, fry the onion until it is soft and starting to go brown 2. Add the garlic and stir fry for a minute or so 3. Add carrot and fry until carrot is a starting to dry 4. Add everything else, stir it all in, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes or so until lentils are soft. Stir every now and then to stop the lentils sticking to the pan.

I was taught to make dahl ages ago by an indian lady and I have applied the basic logic to lots of different situations, including tonight's stew. I don't do "recipes" per se, but I know what to put in to make things taste good.

1. get a large heavy based pot, put some good oil in the bottom and fry some onions down to caramelise them. Add garlic if you wish and any other spices for flavour. One of my favourite tricks here is to put in a few tablespoons of Patak's curry paste. Fry this all together until the smell is overwhelmingly good (i.e. you're activating the spices).

Take all of this out of the pot and put it in a bowl, set aside for later.

2. DON'T WASH THE POT. Put it back on the heat and add a bit more oil. Put in some red lentils or yellow or green split peas and fry them in the oil for about 2 minutes, then add some veggie stock. How much? Dunno. Enough to cover the veggies you're about to put in. Add veggies. I use potato, pumpkin, red sweet potato, turnip, swede, parsnip, etc. Basically lots of root vegetables. The liquid should just cover them. Bring to boil then simmer until veggies are tender. Make sure you stir it often and don't put it on too high a heat or your lentils will stick to the bottom and burn. You will be smelling it for days if it does.

3. When the veggies are almost done (about 5 minutes away from finished) add the onions and spices back into the pot. Stir, simmer for 5 minutes. Serve over rice.

Make up a big pot of this and freeze the left overs. Put it on top of rice when you need a good curry.

On the topic of rice, when putting the rice in the pot to cook, add some green/brown lentils ( a handful or so) and cook with the rice. It tastes great and adds wonderful protein to the meal. My lebanese relos make a green lentil and rice dish with lots of very fried onions on top of it called majadra (sp?). Tastes awesome.

I usually get some ideas off the net or those cooking mags,but spun this up last night.

Cooked enough pasta for 2Cut up about 1/8 of a pumkin into little squares and roasted in a little olive oil.

Then stired into the pasta,250ish grams of Tuscan antipesta (from deli section of woolworths) along with couple table spoons of a store bought basil pesto .(Store bought coz our basil bush died) and the pumkin.Sprinkle a bit of parmesen cheese on top and it went down very well.

Haystacksfinely dice tomatograte some carrotshred some lettucemake your nachos as abovesprinkle over the tomato, grated carrot and pile on the lettuce(optional) sour cream or greek style yoghurt (low fat if you are watching your fat intake)

Satay and riceI take some peanut butter, commercial satay sauce and coconut milk and make my satay sauce before I start. Just shake it all up in a jar.so, mix 3 or 4 tablespoons of peanut butter, a small tin of coconut milk and a jar of commercial satay sauce together

(optional) fry some mock duck in a panadd a small tin of chick peas (just fry them up with some garlic if you are skipping the mock duck(optional) add your favorite tofupour in the satay saucesimmer until the satay sauce is hot all the way throughturn your stove to Peirce until the sauce is boiling furiouslyadd a small packet of Birds eye frozen veg (with sugar snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower and carrot) or any other small pack of frozen veggies.when the veggies are almost cooked:add a small can of sliced water chestnuts and a small can of bamboo shootsheat through

serve with cooked rice

Summer vegetables pastaTake 2 bottles of commercial pasta sauce (Dolmio, Three Brothers etc)Pour half of each into a saucepan, add garlic, bring to a simmerWhile the sauce is simmering, boil your pastaabout halfway through the pasta boiling, steam a packet of Birds eye frozen veg (with sugar snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower and carrot) or any other small pack of frozen veggies.When the pasta is cooked, drain it.Serve pasta on a plate. Pour over the hot pasta sauce. Spoon the veggies over the pasta sauce. Pour over a bit more pasta sauce until the veggies are about half covered. Grated cheese.(optional) sour cream or greek style yoghurt (low fat if you are watching your fat intake)

These all take roughly 15 mins except the rice which takes about 1/2 hour.

1. Drain can of mock duck, rinse and then soak in cold water (the mock duck, not the can ) for a while (makes it taste less canned). Chop it up into the duck pancake type sizes - if you need to.2. Fry for a while then add some (well quite a lot of) soy sauce3. Keep frying until the soy caramelises on the mock duck and it looks right3. Follow instructions to prepare the duck pancakes you bought in the same shop as the mock duck - probably microwave for 30 seconds.4. Wrap mock duck, along with some spring onion, chilli and hoisin sauce in pancakes5. Enjoy them you will

My non-vegetarian duck pancake loving mum and brother reckon this is just as good as the real thing. Even our friend's 5 year old loved them.

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